Fight against Laois and Offaly voters being forced into Kildare begins

Reporter:

Conor Ganly

13 Jul 2017

Email:

news@leinsterexpress.ie

0

Fight starts to stop a huge part of Laois being forced into Kildare at General Elections

A campaign to stop several thousand Laois and Offaly voters being forced to vote for Kildare politicians at General Elections is set to start in Portarlington.

The Fianna Fáil party in Portarlington has called a meeting to discuss the recommendations of the Constituency Commission which would see a population of more than 12,500 in both counties hived off to Kildare.

In the process Kildare South have four TDs in the Dáil and bring to eight the number of TDs for Kildare. Kildare's gain would be Laois Offaly's loss. The commission also recommended that Laois and Offaly would be reunited and revert back to five seats. Most of the voters would be taken from Portarlington which sits right on the Laois Offaly border.

However, Fianna Fáil in Portarlingon is not happy on both sides of the border. Apart from Laois and Offaly voters in the town, a large swathe of Portarlington's hinterland will also be broken away from Laois. Villages lost to Kildare include Killenard, Ballybrittas. It would break a link with parts of Offaly to the north of the town.

Willie Murphy is party chairman for the Laois side of the border town.

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